A/N: A brief note before the story begins. This is a Linstead AU. To make the story flow better, Erin is Hank's actual daughter in this one, so she's Erin Voight. Okay, let's get to it!
It all began with a storyline. Or, more specifically, it began with a summons to a meeting. A summons like many others that had came before it.
"Jay! The boss wants to see you. There's a creative meeting starting down the hall. Last door on the left."
"Thanks, Jeff," Jay Halstead called to the road agent who had stuck his head around the locker room door, a guy in his fifties by the name of Jeff Jarrett.
As one of the top wrestlers in WWE, Jay Halstead was used to the boss wanting to see him in person quite often. In fact, Jay was the number one bad guy, referred to as a heel, in the company. Fans pretty much universally despised him, and he took a lot of pride in that. Whenever a paying customer booed him or shouted abuse it only meant that he was good at his job.
Top guy or not, he didn't get to keep WWE's owner waiting. Hank Voight often had little patience, and a short temper. Over the past few years, Jay had learned the best ways to deal with the boss. Some people probably called it politicking. Whatever it was, it worked.
Dressed quite casually in jeans and a dark red polo shirt, Jay got up and made his way out of the locker room. He noticed a couple of the lower card guys, guys who were never going to reach main event level the way Jay had, looking at him. Jealous, he assumed. Wrestling locker rooms were like that in every company. Some people had the main event spots locked down. Those who didn't, wanted them. And those who knew they were never going to get them became jealous and bitter.
The hallway outside the locker room was busy, as they always were before episodes of WWE's weekly TV show Monday Night Raw. Talent and crew were coming and going, busying themselves with whatever they needed to get done. For Jay, it was a short trip to the end of the hallway. Last door in the left, he recalled.
Creative meetings were never fun. Sitting around a table with Hank Voight, a writer or two, and sometimes other wrestlers, wasn't Jay's idea of a way to kill time before the show. The conversations often went on way longer than they needed to in his opinion. All he wanted was for his character to look strong on TV in the long term. Whether he had to win or lose each week was of lesser importance. You could lose and still look strong if you knew what you were doing.
Last door on the left, Jay thought as he approached it. It wasn't Hank's actual office. Every week a room was set aside backstage at whatever arena they were using for the chairman, where meetings with talent, writers or road agents could take place. This meeting though, was taking place in a separate office – one that had a paper sign on the door saying 'Do not enter. Meeting in progress.' That meant the meeting was important. Obviously the instruction didn't apply to Jay, so he knocked the door and opened it.
"Hey, Hank," Jay said as he walked in. He was high enough up in the company that he had surpassed having to use 'Mr Voight'.
It wasn't the boss, sitting at the head of a small table with only two seats on each side, that caught Jay's attention, though. Hank's daughter, Erin Voight, was there. Erin was about Jay's age, late twenties, he thought. He didn't know the woman at all. In fact they had barely ever said more than hello to each other since she had first started appearing on TV for her family's company several months earlier. She seemed quite shy backstage, preferring to keep herself to herself. Why she was in a creative meeting that he had been called to, Jay didn't have the first idea.
Opposite Erin was Adam Ruzek, one of the other top male wrestlers in WWE. Adam's character, by contrast to Jay's, was intended to be popular with the fans, which made him what was known as a babyface. Pretty much all wrestling storylines pitted one or more babyface characters against one or more heel characters. The dynamic made it easy for most of the audience to decide who to support, and who to oppose. Of late, Jay had been in a rivalry with Adam, as well as a separate one with Hank's on-screen character, who was also currently a babyface.
In another layer to the ongoing storylines, Adam's character and Erin's character had started dating not long after her debut on TV. Jay had heard on the grapevine that the writers were planning to throw an engagement into that story soon.
Sitting beside Adam was WWE's senior writer, a well-built man with neatly-trimmed grey hair named Dick Wolf. He worked personally on anything that involved either of the Voights.
"Jay. Sit down and we can get on with this," Hank said in his improbably gravelly voice. As usual, he was all business. Chit chat was alien to him.
The only empty chair was next to Erin, so Jay went over to it. He took in her appearance. Shoulder length dark hair, pretty face, but wearing an awful outfit of a blue sweater and cream pants, both of which looked like something his grandma would wear to go to play bingo. That was deliberate on WWE's part, presumably in an attempt to make her look more homely and innocent on-screen in comparison to her dad, who was always seen swaggering around in expensive suits.
"Hey," he said in general to everyone who was seated.
"Hey," Adam said, as Dick nodded.
"Hi," Erin said, seeming a bit shy, as usual.
Jay sat down, waiting to learn what was going on. He didn't have to wait long, as Hank got right to it.
"As you all know, we have an ongoing romantic storyline with Erin and Adam. Tonight is the night Adam is going to propose. But here's the thing. The audience reaction isn't what we hoped for. They seem to be starting to lose interest. Truth is, I don't think they want to see a nice couple having a good time. They're not engaged, to use an awful pun."
"They want drama," Jay said. Personally, he found Adam and Erin's storyline cliché and boring, so he had to imagine a chunk of the audience felt the same.
"I don't know, Hank. I think it's going okay," Adam said. It was only natural for him to try and defend his spot, but everyone could tell that Hank had decided to change direction.
"No, Jay's right on this one. We need drama, and drama's what we're going to have. That's why I've decided we're going to turn Erin heel."
"Me?" Erin said in obvious surprise. Clearly there hadn't been a family discussion ahead of time about her becoming a bad guy in the eyes of the fans. She didn't sound convinced by the prospect.
"Yes, you. We're going to go ahead with the proposal tonight, but at some point in the coming weeks, or maybe even at the wedding, you're going to turn on Adam and alight with Jay."
Oh shit, Jay thought. At last he knew why he was in the meeting now, and he liked it. On instinct, he was up for the idea of working with Erin, and not least because he figured she would look hot if she was dressed and made up differently.
"So, what I want is ideas," Hank said, opening the discussion to everyone.
They brainstormed for a few minutes, with nothing that had any legs to it being suggested. Then a lightbulb went off in Jay's head. "What if Erin's already married to me? She's married to me and I interrupt the wedding and tell everyone?"
Erin laughed, looking at him with her eyes gleaming in amusement. "How would that even be a thing?" she asked.
Damn, she was very pretty, Jay thought. And she had a bit of a raspy voice, which managed to sound really sexy. He wondered if that somehow ran in the Voight family. Now wasn't the time to think about that though. He had to put some flesh on the bones of the idea he'd just floated.
"What if we air some segments about you having a bachelorette party? Let's say it's in Vegas. We could get a bunch of extras in to play your friends and stuff. Let's say a barman or a waiter slips something into your drink. Next thing we see, you and I are in a car at one of those drive-thru wedding places. I say I'm getting married to the beautiful Erin Voight, and we go through the ceremony. The whole time, you're passed out in the passenger seat."
"Then how's she going to say 'I do'," Adam wanted to know.
That was a good question. "Uh, what if I mimic her voice?" Jay suggested.
Hank's reaction could best be described as amused, rather than negative. "Show me," he demanded. "You're sat to the left of Erin right now, so pretend those are the front seats of a car and act this out."
"Okay," Jay said with a slight laugh. He turned to Erin, and realised for it to even look remotely convincing that he had a fiancée who was getting married next to him instead of a drugged woman lolling around in the seat, she would have to rest her head on him. "Can I just..." he said, moving to put his right arm around her shoulders but not touching her until she okayed it.
"Sure." She moved closer to him and actually nestled against him as he put his arm around her. "Maybe rest your head on my shoulder," he suggested.
Erin did so, a Jay got a nose full of possibly the nicest perfume he had ever smelled in his life. Expensive stuff, he supposed. Hank Voight was a multi-millionaire, so Erin likely didn't struggle for money. However much it cost, it helped to turn him on as she rested against him. He had to will his dick not to start getting hard.
"Okay, I'll be the person from the drive-thru wedding place," Hank said, enjoying himself as he sometimes did with hokey ideas like this. "Do you, Erin, take Jay to be your husband?"
Looking away from Hank and towards Erin, Jay did his best to sound like a woman. "I do."
Hank roared with laughter, and Erin burst into a fit of giggles as she sat back up. Dick had a grin on his face, and even Adam cracked a smile.
"That's the most ridiculous shit I ever saw," Hank said. "I love it. We're going to do it. But a son of a bitch drugging Erin and marrying himself to her without her knowledge doesn't turn her heel."
"No, it doesn't. We still need to figure something out for that," Jay admitted.
More brainstorming ensued. It took more than half an hour, but finally a plan was put together for Erin to eventually become a bad guy too, siding with her husband.
"Glad we got that done. Dick, start writing it up Took longer than I hoped," Hank grumbled, quickly getting up and heading for the door. Dick made sure to follow right behind him. Adam wasn't far behind them, probably still annoyed that his storyline was being canned. The rapid departures left Erin and Jay a little further behind when they left the office.
"That was fun. I'm looking forward to it," she said when they were out in the hallway, where they would head in opposite directions. She flashed him a smile that gave her the most gorgeous dimples.
Jay wasn't much of a smiler, but he tried his best. "Me too, Erin. I'll see you around."
"See you," she said, and walked off around the corner.
Left standing there, Jay knew it would be a couple of months yet before they started working with each other. What he had said was true. He was very much looking forward to it.
A/N: Welcome to my new project, my first Linstead AU! Hopefully some familiar faces from Keeping It in the Family are joining me for this one. If you are, drop me a comment so I know you're here.
And if you're new to my work, that's awesome to. Feel free to comment with any thoughts you have. I try to reply to everyone as best I can.
The next chapter will skip us ahead a couple of months, to where the story really kicks off. And don't worry, we'll be seeing other familiar faces in this AU too!